Editorials

10 Aug YARA SHAHIDI IS A SHINING STAR FOR THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

It does not take much to see that Yara Shahidi is extremely brilliant. Being as beautiful as she is intelligent, Yara is proof that you do not have to be just one thing. An actress, a Lawyer, an activist, you can be anything you want to be, and not necessarily one at a time.

By 14, Shahidi was cast as Zoey Johnson, the eldest daughter on ABC’s Black-ish.
The Award-winning series tackles contemporary issues in a fresh and dynamic way.

Image via The Hollywood Reporter

She has gone on to be the star of Grown-ish, the spin-off show for Black-ish, whose 2nd season will air on Freeform in 2019.

In an interview with Lacey Rose for The Hollywood Reporter, Shahidi talks college, activism and film.

Images via The Hollywood Reporter

See an excerpt of the interview below:

“The thing people don’t fully understand about my generation is just how multifaceted we are. Oftentimes, people like to oversimplify what [we] believe in or do, whether that’s, ‘Oh, you’re on your phones all the time,’ or, ‘Oh, you’re very self-centered,’ but what I’ve seen from my peers is that we’re socially engaged and curious about the world.” – Yara Shahidi

She collects mentors everywhere she goes: Emma Watson, at a CAA retreat, Janelle Monae, backstage at the Essence Awards, and civil rights icon John Lewis, at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where she interviewed him on behalf of the Clinton campaign. But Shahidi’s discipline and maturity seem to stem from the relatively balanced upbringing her parents have worked to maintain for her and her two younger brothers, who also followed their mother into acting. “This is what we do, it’s not who we are,” is a line they utter often in the family home.